Japanese accessory: OBD-II Auto Speed Lock

Next up, another gadget I bought from the Japanese Market that I have not seen anyone talk about here. This is a small device marketed as a 'Safety Add-on' that plugs into the OBD-II port (a diagnostics port under the dash just above the pedals) which adds the following functionalities to the vehicle:

• Auto Lock all doors when vehicle speed reaches 15km/h
• Auto Unlock all doors when pressing Park/Power Off button on vehicle.
• Auto Unlock all doors on collision.
• Sudden hard braking above 50km/h will trigger the hazard lights to blink 5 times.

I have not tested all functionalities (especially not the 3rd one!) but at least the first two works flawlessly on my Prius+. 4th one I haven't tested as I heard its not good to do emergency braking during the break in period.

From my observations, the features are only enabled when the device is plugged in, and disabled when unplugged. So this proves that it does not work by altering any settings stored on the vehicle.

Anyway, here is the Japanese description with device dimenions:


Here is a picture of the device I received:


And here it is installed under the dash on the driver's side. Not intrusive at all in my opinion.


I would unplug it every time I take the car for service though as they might need access to the OBD-II port to carry out the service and will wonder what this foreign object is!

The japanese description of the product states that this device is compatible with Prius alpha, Prius Gen3, RAV4, IQ and various other Toyotas so it stands a good chance it will work for other variants in other country. Again I took the risk and it worked out fine.

I am not certain if any of the above features might be standard behaviour on some variants but its certainly not standard on my UK Prius+ and not something that the dealership can 'turn on'.

Anyone interested to take the risk and try it on other variants (inc. Gen3), I am happy to help!

 

Thanks, not sure if I made it sound confusing with regards to 'Power OFF'. What I meant is the doors will unlock on Pressing 'Power Button' to turn off vehicle. You can lock the 'powered-off' car the usual way after you get out. Or unless you are referring to other safety concerns and I am missing the plot ...